Rifaat’s short story “My World of The Unknown” ostensibly is a love story. It is a story that crosses the threshold between the physical world to the world of the “Unknown.” The speaker describes her relationship with a spiritual entity, a Djinn, which in the story is a female being, making the love affair between the married woman and the Djinn one of lesbianism, something that presents a challenge for Muslim readers for whom lesbianism is not an accepted orientation. The challenges it presents were challenges that the speaker comes to terms with through the course of the narrative before losing her beloved due to her husband breaking a pact that had been established between them. That her husband kills a snake, which breaches the pact, is particularly important and symbolic of the struggles of Muslim women with a sexual orientation outside of the bounds of the Islamic religion. It is the male patriarchy, which presents a challenge to what they would consider to be sinful forms of sexual expression. As a result, it is the male heiarchy which imposes one form of stringent sexuality on humanity which demonstrably has a much more dynamic spectrum of sexuality.
Last year the Economist ran an article centered on the emerging debate on homosexuality within the Islamic religion. The article, titled “Straight and Narrow” said that while a debate about homosexuality in Islam is beginning, “in Muslim lands persecution—and hypocrisy—is still rife” (Economist, 1). The article mentions pamphlets being handed out ubiquitously in Muslim countries, where the message of “God abhors you” and “Turn or Burn” is being handed out. There are seven countries in the world today that have the death penalty for homosexuality, and all of them are Muslim countries (The Economist, 1).
More than just exploring homoerotic love, “My World of The Unknown” also poses a challenge for Muslims because of it’s exploration of female sexuality. The story uses a sexually charged language explore the pleasures of the speaker’s relationship with the Djinn. The Djinn says that “And is sex anything but food for the body and an interaction in union and love?” She then asked “Is it not this that makes human beings happy and is the secret of feeling joy and elation?” These are important questions, and interesting ones. They are being asked rhetorically, meaning that the truth of their premises is being assumed. But many Muslims would disagree with these premises.
The Safra Project, is an online resource project that deals with issues of female sexuality relating to, “Lesbian, bisexual and/or transgender women who identify as Muslim religiously.” In many ways, the practice of Islam and homosexuality seem mutually exclusive. On the Safra Project’s website they write that sex and sexuality, even heterosexuality, is in general a taboo topic of discussion in Islam.” They write, “Women’s sexuality in Muslim laws and societies is limited to monogamous heterosexual marriage. This set form of sexuality is believed to be preserving a ‘sexual purity’ that is heterosexuality and requires male control over women’s sexuality.” (Safra, 2013).
The husband character in “My World of The Unknown” seems to be a decent character, and is not presented in a negative light. But still, he is seems distinct and is presented to the reader without any depth in his development. The narrator of the story seems often lonely, and after catching a glimpse of a snake in her garden that she assumes is more spirit than animal, she begins to show the classic symptoms of depression. She starts to fantasize about a sexual relationship with the creature, wondering if after Cleopatra swore of relationships with men if she began to have sexual relationships with snakes. Even at the risk of death, the narrator tells readers that her desire is so strong that this would be an acceptable exchange for the fulfillment of it. She spends most of her day sleeping and it is not until the spirit revisits her and she experiences then symptoms of one who is in love.
The story by using a Djinn, a spiritual creature created by Allah, as the seducer of the narrator, avoids a condemnation that would be easily leveled were the sexual partner to be another woman of the real world. Because the narrator’s lover comes from a spiritual world, she is in a way beyond the judgment and reproach from the human world. The narrator’s mantra of “I am ill” is in accord with the Muslim religion’s view of sexuality beyond male-female sexuality.
When the narrator wonders as to why the Djiin should come in the form of a female instead of a male, she tells the speaker that it is the feminine side of love that is most pure and that “I have wedded you, so there is no sin in our love, nothing to reproach yourself about.”
Stories like this, while they may be a challenge for Muslims in the world today, are important to consider in the wider debate that is happening and will continue to happen as the religion faces the growing acceptance of a broader view of sexuality. Art, like fiction, can bring another element of consideration to the table rather than mere theological debate, presenting lesbianism as something beautiful, rather than something sinful and disordered.
Works Cited:
"Islam and homosexuality Straight but narrow." The Economist. N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Nov. 2013. <http://www.economist.com/node/21546002>.
" About US." Safra Project. N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Nov. 2013. <http://www.safraproject.org/>.
Rifaat, Alifa “My World of the Unknown”
